The functions and features most commonly offered by instructional planning and scheduling platforms (Ad Astra, Coursedog and Infosilem), and the HERM business capability each one supports. Instructional planning decides which sections run, when, where and who teaches them: demand forecasting, pathway alignment, term schedule building, section optimization, faculty workload and classroom allocation. The SIS stays the system of record for live sections and students; curriculum design and the published catalog are out of scope. See also the SIS, HRM and student mobile app functions & features.
Shows which parts of the institution instructional planning supports, where it overlaps other systems, and where it stops.
A function's main HERM home vs others it touches. Features narrow to one capability.
14 HERM capabilities touched, centred on timetable management, curriculum planning, workforce resourcing and space utilisation.
Wheel to explore, tree to scan every mapping, CSV or JSON to reuse it.
How this was compiled: three AI assistants (Claude, Perplexity and Grok) were each asked to identify the core functions and features of the major higher education instructional planning and scheduling platforms. Their lists were reconciled into this single set. Treat it as a starting point, not a vendor-verified specification.
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The full hierarchy: areas, functional areas, functions and features, each with its HERM mapping and definition. Select any HERM capability or feature to see its full definition.
Instructional planning is rarely one system. Here the same functions and features are mapped to the applications a fictional Example State University actually runs: a vendor core, add-on modules, third-party products, homegrown tools and spreadsheets. Each link records how well the application covers the feature and its role. HERM coverage is then calculated from those links, not mapped by hand.
Also see this ecosystem as a capability × application matrix or a HERM-to-application flow.
Inner rings: area and functional area. Outer ring: one slice per feature, split into bands when more than one application provides it. Marks outside the ring flag gaps (red) and competing systems of record (violet).
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The executive view. Each bar is the capability’s features, coloured by the best coverage any application gives them. Select a capability for its HERM definition, or an application to see its footprint.
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